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Biographical details

Tom Roberts took up a Senior Lectureship at the University of Sydney in January 2012.He is interested in understanding the properties and functions of both proteins and small molecules in plants, as well as their functionality in foods. He heads a research group working on several projects on a range of species including Arabidopsis, barley, sorghum and wheat. Roberts has 12 years’ experience teaching a broad range of undergraduate units in the molecular biosciences. He also has research collaborations with dynamic Australian agricultural companies.

After studying at James Ruse Agricultural High School in Sydney, Roberts completed a BScAgr degree at the University of Sydney in 1988, majoring in Agricultural Chemistry. He then received an Alexander Hugh Thurburn PhD scholarship and graduated in 1995 with a PhD thesis entitled “Glyoxylate aminotransferases and ureide catabolism in the developing fruits of legumes” under the supervision of Edith Lees and Les Copeland.

Following his PhD research, Roberts worked as a Postdoc at Lund University, Sweden (1994-5) on the properties and functions of the multiple NAD(P)H dehydrogenases in plant mitochondria. Back in Sydney he developed novel methods for the purification of pharmaceutical-grade lactose from cheese whey at the University of Western Sydney/CSIRO (1995-6). He returned to Scandinavia and worked as a technical editor at Lund University and at the Royal Agricultural and Veterinary University in Denmark, as well as a Research Scientist at Novartis Seeds in Sweden. He then completed a 3-year Research Fellowship (1997-2000) at the Risø National Laboratory and the Technical University of Denmark on the properties and functions of the serpin family of proteins in barley and wheat.

In late 2000, Roberts began work as a Research Fellow in the Macquarie University Centre for Analytical Biotechnology and conducted research on the mechanism, structure and regulation of magnesium chelatase, a key enzyme in chlorophyll biosynthesis. In 2004 he accepted an ongoing lectureship at Macquarie University. Roberts taught a range of units there including 2nd-year Plant Structure and Function, 3rd-year Cell and Developmental Biology and 3rd-year Plants: Cells and Molecules. Roberts was a Key Researcher in the Grain Foods Cooperative Research Centre (2004-9).

Research interests

Tom Roberts’ research concerns a variety of plant proteins and small molecules, their properties, roles in the plant, and functionality in foods. His major interest for many years has been the structure, properties and functions of the serpin family of proteins in plants. He also has research interests in peanut allergens, responses of plants to an energy crisis, the chemistry and biochemistry of sorghum grain, the diversity and evolution of pigments in wheat rust, and plant gene silencing.

Most serpins are potent, irreversible inhibitors of specific serine or cysteine proteases. Serpins are fascinating proteins from many perspectives and have a remarkable variety of functions in animals. The structures and functions of plant and algal serpins remain largely unknown. Roberts’ current work focuses on serpins in Arabidopsis, barley and wheat.

Another of Roberts’ research interests is the allergenicity of peanuts. Peanut allergy is a major problem in Australia and many other countries; indeed some people (including children) can suffer life-threatening anaphylactic shock upon ingestion of peanuts, even extremely small amounts. The allergens in peanut kernels are seed storage proteins but the factors that determine their absolute and relative abundance in the mature peanut are largely unknown.

Roberts is also interested is the response of plants to an energy crisis. The model system for this work is the rice coleoptile, the sheath that protects the growing shoot from a germinated rice grain. Using oxygen deprivation - either hypoxia (low oxygen) or anoxia (no oxygen) - an energy crisis can be induced during growth of the coleoptile. Responses studied include energy allocation, transcription and translation.

One of Roberts’ more recent research interests is in the chemistry and biochemistry of sorghum grain, particularly concerning the availability of starch in animal feed and the effects of malting.

The most recent of Roberts’ research interests are in the diversity and evolution of pigments in rust fungi and in the physiology and grain quality of Australian wild rices.

Teaching and supervision

In 2015 Tom Roberts is joint coordinator of AGEN2001 Plant Function, and coordinator of AGCH3025 Chemistry and Biochemistry of Foods. He is teaching one of four modules in AGCH3026 Food Biotechnology, a substantial part of AGEN1006 Biological Chemistry, and a small part of the Masters unit, AFNR5107 Principles of Biochemical Analysis. He is the Postgraduate Coordinator, Honours Coordinator and Seminar Coordinator for the Department of Plant and Food Sciences.

Hansson, A., Willows, R., Roberts, T., Hansson, M. (2002). Three semidominant barley mutants with single amino acid substitutions in the smallest magnesium chelatase subunit form defective AAA+ hexamers. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS), 99(21), 13944-13949. [More Information]

Khoddami, A., Wilkes, M., Roberts, T. (2013). Effect of malting on phenolic compounds and antioxidant activity in four Australian sorghums. ICC Conference 2013 in Association with the 63rd Australian Cereal Chemistry Conference, Australia: International Association for Cereal Science and Technology.

Khoddami, A., Wilkes, M., Roberts, T. (2013). Effect of malting on phenolic compounds and antioxidant activity in four Australian sorghums. ICC Conference 2013 in Association with the 63rd Australian Cereal Chemistry Conference, Australia: International Association for Cereal Science and Technology.

Hansson, A., Willows, R., Roberts, T., Hansson, M. (2002). Three semidominant barley mutants with single amino acid substitutions in the smallest magnesium chelatase subunit form defective AAA+ hexamers. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS), 99(21), 13944-13949. [More Information]